Milpitas, (BUSINESS WIRE) July 21_Nanometrics Incorporated (Nasdaq:NANO), a leading supplier of advanced integrated and standalone metrology equipment to the semiconductor industry, today completed its acquisition of Accent Optical Technologies, Inc. Accent Optical is a leading supplier of overlay and thin film metrology and process control systems to the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. The transaction was approved both by Accent Optical's and by Nanometrics' shareholders at their respective special meetings held earlier today.

John D. Heaton, president and chief executive officer of Nanometrics, commented, "We are very excited to be announcing the completion of the Accent Optical acquisition today. The new Nanometrics is a leader in every one of the core markets we serve, and Accent's contribution in expanding our market position is tremendous, especially in the overlay metrology market. Over the past six months, we have come to know the Accent Optical organization, and that process has revealed the great potential we can achieve by combining our businesses. We've also spent considerable time laying out the integration plan, which puts us in a great position to hit the ground running immediately in order to start realizing the benefits of the combination."

Upon completion of the acquisition, Nanometrics issued, and reserved for issuance upon exercise of assumed options, an aggregate of approximately 5 million shares of its common stock in exchange for all outstanding Accent capital stock and rights to acquire Accent capital stock. Nanometrics will also retire approximately $10 million in debt obligations of Accent net of the cash on Accent's balance sheet at closing.

Nanometrics, with pro forma annual revenues exceeding $120 million in 2005 and a combined workforce of over 500 employees worldwide, will continue to be headquartered in Milpitas and will also have development and manufacturing operations in Oregon, South Korea and the United Kingdom and sales and service offices worldwide.

Nanometrics is traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol NANO. Nanometrics' website is: www.nanometrics.com.